It’s remarkable that even the Alaska Legislature is being denied access to a public document created with more than $250,000 of public money for the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
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With the Permanent Fund now at the half-century mark, and the fund’s assets near $90 billion, the need for legislative oversight is greater than at any time in our history. Alaskans would better understand the operations and investment choices of the fund if we take steps now to create a transparent and functioning review process that protects the fund and the public.
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It’s been 50 years since Alaska voters created the Permanent Fund through an amendment to the Alaska Constitution. While this is one of the great success stories in Alaska history, enough time has passed to recognize a danger sign: Far too much power over the giant fund is delegated to a single person in the executive branch of state government—the governor.
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According to my rough math, if this is a $50 billion project, instead of a property tax of about $1 billion per year, Dunleavy is proposing an alternative tax of about $76 million per year, a reduction of about 92 percent. Most of the $75 million would go to the North Slope, Denali, Mat-Su and Kenai boroughs.
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Those claiming the Permanent Fund must be doing something wrong because it has not matched the gains of the S&P 500 in the past few years are missing something.
Aside from acting as if perfect hindsight is a roadmap for the future, they are also blind to the need for diversification, which lowers the risk during those periods when specific targets, including the S&P 500, collapse in value.
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In a letter to constituents, Sen. Lisa Murkowski says “It is now the duty of Congress to define the scope of this conflict and require the President to present his case for this action in full and transparently.”
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Keeping the Permanent Fund permanent means reducing the amount we withdraw from it each year.
Instead of taking our 5 percent a year, put a schedule in place to reduce it to 4.5 percent by 2033. Keeping more money in the fund is the best way to improve the chances of future growth, a lesson we should have learned years ago from the Norwegians.
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Rep. Nick Begich the Third went on at length in his speech to the Legislature about his tax-free dividend bill, the text of which has not been released, without ever confessing that this is a campaign gimmick designed to fool the gullible that has no chance of passing.
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President Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran is a “strategic master stroke,” according to a press release Gov. Mike Dunleavy got the Wall Street Journal to publish.
Right. It was brilliant to go to war with Iran without a plan to deal with Iran blocking oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, starting a regional war with a growing death toll and disrupting the world economy.
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The payments to the four public trustees of the Permanent Fund—$400 for each meeting day—have remained the same for nearly 45 years. This is one aspect of the Permanent Fund structure that needs an examination as we mark the 50th anniversary of the constitutional amendment that created the fund.
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